Two young boys in Michigan are now heroes after rescuing an injured kitten from the side of the road near a farm field. The cat's survival story has the community all abuzz to save "The Combine Kitty".

Howard the cat is pretty vocal about his situation. He's just beginning to recover at the Lansing Veterinary Clinic after brothers Bryce and Kyle Billingslea found the 3-month old kitten after hearing his cries.

"It was like right there. He was crying," they said.

His front paws had apparently been severed by farm machinery and veterinarians says he could have been in the field for a week before the boys came by and heard him.

"We both looked down, we saw the cat and Bryce picked it up and saw it's paws were cut pretty much off," said Kyle.

The boys went to a neighbor's house and called Ingham County Animal Control which picked him up where 8-year-old Bryce had placed him in a culvert in the shade to get him away from the flies and bugs.

"There were a lot of ants and I didn't want them to start biting him," said Bryce.

They named the kitten "Howard the Combine Kitty" in reference to his amazing story.

"The cat was sitting there purring away even though it looked like it was seriously injured. Once our vet took interest in it, that was all it took, they were going to do everything they could for the cat," said Gary Ireland, an animal control officer.

"It's a long road ahead for this little survivor. Howard will need prosthetic feet and then there is still a fear of infection."

"The determination of his overall health is going to be how well his wounds heal, and how much tissue growth we can get back if we have to do future surgeries."

Meanwhile, these two heroes are happy to do their part.

"We're happy that we saved him because he was like, really cute."

Ingham County, Michigan's animal control has already received 300 letters and cards with donations to pay for Howard's care.

Click here to find out more about Howard or donating to help him.